In the xerographic reproduction and other printing arts, especially where a print job is a large, multi-page document, or a large number of copies of a plural page document, it is well known that frequent paper jams and job recoveries can result in reduced productivity, operator frustration, and having to discard many sheets of print jobs which are only partially completed when the jams occurred. It is also well known in the printing art that certain types of image substrate sheets being printed in a printer are substantially more prone to jams than normal printing sheets such as standard letter or legal size paper of normal weights. Examples of more jam prone sheets include very large sheets, heavy card stock sheets, tabbed sheets, special cover sheets, special coated paper sheets, transparencies, etc.. These more jam prone sheets require far more frequent printer stoppages, jam clearances, and job recoveries. Often, such special, more jam prone, sheets are only a few pages of a document which is otherwise being printed on normal copy sheets, yet the printing of the entire document is interrupted, and several pages of each document copy sheet may have to be cleared out of the print engine, discarded, and reprinted. It is a feature of the disclosed system herein to reduce many of the above-described and other problems.
In the disclosed embodiment, as an electronic print job document comes in to the print server or other electronic input for an electronic printer for printing, the pages of that document specifying more jam prone sheets may be electronically identified and electronically separated or xe2x80x9cpulledxe2x80x9d from the normal print order print queue. Those special, more jam-prone, sheet page requirements may be identified from the job ticket, PDL, or other special print stock instructions or indicia. Or, in some cases, they may be identified from a paper supply drawer designator (of a drawer in which special paper or card stock is loaded). These automatically electronically pulled jam prone pages are then printed first, separately, out of order, so that they can be better supervised, and so as not to require throwing away other (normal) printed sheets in job recoveries to clear jams. These special sheets are fed into an interposer or other intermediate tray(s) (intermediate the printer output) for subsequent insertion. Thus, if a jam occurs due to a special sheet, only some of these special sheets need to be purged and reprinted, not the entire, or a large proportion of, the multi-page document set or sets. Then, after the jam-prone sheets have been printed and temporarily stored in the interposer, the rest of that same print job, which is less jam prone, is printed. That is, the text pages being printed on standard weight, standard size, paper, are then printed, and then collation is reestablished (to provide complete collated sets of the print job) by interposing (inserting) the previously printed sheets from the interposer tray(s) into the print job stream of the printer at the page positions from which they were electronically removed. Properly collated complete print job documents may thus be normally sent on for output and/or finishing.
Note that this should be distinguished from the prior use of interposers (noted below) to interpose preprinted sheets previously printed separately, on a separate printer or otherwise, which requires special programming instructions for each insert.
By way of background on xe2x80x9cinterposersxe2x80x9d (sheet inserters) for printers there is noted, for example, Xerox Corp. U.S. Pat. No. 5,489,969 issued Feb. 6, 1996 to J. J. Soler, et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,946,641, issued Aug. 31, 1999 based on allowed U.S. application Ser. No. 08/876,419 filed Jun. 16, 1997 by J. L. Rourke, et al., originally filed as a provisional application on Oct. 18, 1996 (D/96509). The Canadian equivalent thereof was published on Apr. 18, 1998 as publication number 2215766. Said Rourke, et al. patent is also of interest for disclosing a queuing system examining document attributes and delivering one or more portions of the document to one or more document processing subsystems and then merging the document portions.. Other art is cited in both. Especially as to the latter, the Xerox Disclosure Journal publication, xe2x80x9cIntegration of Black Only and Color Printersxe2x80x9d by Paul F. Morgan, Vol. 16, No. 6, pp. 381-383, November/December, 1991.
Of background interest as to tab printing in a network context, there is noted Xerox Corp. U.S. Pat. No. 5,946,461 to Landry et al.
By way of general background on printer jam detection and job recovery, there is noted, for example, Xerox Corp. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,045,881; 4,231,547; and 5,179,410.
There are numerous background examples of many products and patents on electronic printing, print job queue management, and the like, including those cited above, such as said Rourke, et al., and other patents cited therein. Thus, electronic printing of electronic print jobs in general, as well as jam detection, job recover, collation, finishing and other aspects thereof, is well known in the art from these and many other patents and products. Accordingly, they need not be re-described herein for those skilled in the art.
By way of such background, it is well known that an electronic print job being electronically sent to a printer can automatically control the printer operation, including the selection of the print sheets for particular pages. It may include special sheet selections, along with the other document printing instructions, in one of the known page description languages (PDL), or other print job instructions. The print job may be sent directly or via an interconnecting separate or integral print server. Some commercial electronic printers allow additional such selections or additions to be made from the printer console or graphic user interface (GUI), or a xe2x80x9cjob ticketxe2x80x9d. The electronic print job may be sent directly from user terminals, or from electronic storage, typically over internal or external networks to which the printer is connected, which may also connect with the Internet. Typically the sent print jobs go into a print queue of print jobs in an assigned or selected printing order in the print server, which print order is usually determined by their document receipt order, and document page order, unless overridden is some manner.
Some further examples of prior patents relating to networked printers in network environments of plural remote terminal shared users include Xerox Corporation U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,453,128; 5,170,340; 5,226,112; 5,243,518; 5,287,194; EPO 0529818A3 pub. Mar. 3, 1993; and GB 2198566A pub. Jun. 15, 1988. Some patents on this subject by others include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,623,244; 4,651,278; 4,760,458; 4,821,107; 4,903,229; 4,953,080; 5,113,355; 5,113,494; 5,181,162; 5,220,674; 5,247,670 and 5,371,837. Further by way of background, some of the following Xerox Corporation U.S. patents also include examples of networked systems with printers: U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,153,577; 5,113,517; 5,072,412; 5,065,347; 5,008,853; 4,947,345; 4,939,507; 4,937,036; 4,920,481; 4,914,586; 4,899,136; 4,453,128; 4,063,220; 4,099,024; 3,958,088; 3,920,895; and 3,597,071. Some of these patents also disclose xe2x80x9cmultifunctionxe2x80x9d machines, such as digital printer/scanner/facsimile/copier machines, and their controls.
It is also known to provide xe2x80x9cjob ticketsxe2x80x9d with page description language (PDL) or other print job instructions. Cited merely as two examples are Xerox Corp. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,467,434 and 5,493,634. Job tickets are printed sheets or cards with optically readable indicia code providing printing control instructions which can be inputted to the scanner of the printer, if it has one, or to a connected scanner.
Some historic network systems related publications include xe2x80x9cXerox Office Systems Technology . . . Xerox 8000 Series Products: Workstations, Services, Ethernet, and Software Developmentxe2x80x9d (copyright)1982, 1984 by Xerox Corporation, OSD-R8203A, Ed. T. Linden and E. Harslem, with a xe2x80x9cTable of Contentsxe2x80x9d citing its numerous prior publications sources, and an Abstract noting the April 1981 announcement of xe2x80x9cthe 8110 Star Information System, a new personal computer . . . xe2x80x9d; xe2x80x9cXerox System Integration Standard Printing Protocol XSIS 118404xe2x80x9d, April 1984; xe2x80x9cXerox Integrated Production Publishers Solutions: . . . xe2x80x9d Booklet No. xe2x80x9c610P50807xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9c11/85xe2x80x9d; xe2x80x9cPrinting Protocol-Xerox System Integration Standardxe2x80x9d (copyright)1990 by Xerox Corporation, XNSS 119005 May 1990; xe2x80x9cXerox Network Systems Architecturexe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cGeneral Information Manualxe2x80x9d, XNSG 068504 April 1985, with an extensive annotated bibliography, (copyright)1985 by Xerox Corporation; xe2x80x9cInterpress(copyright): The Source Bookxe2x80x9d, Simon and Schuster, Inc., New York, N.Y., 1988, by Harrington, S. J. and Buckley, R. R.; Adobe Systems Incorporated xe2x80x9cPostScript(copyright) Language Reference Manualxe2x80x9d, Addison-Wesley Co., 1990; xe2x80x9cMastering Novell(copyright) Netware(copyright)xe2x80x9d, 1990, SYBEX, Inc., Alameda, Calif., by Cheryl E. Currid and Craig A. Gillett; xe2x80x9cPalladium Print Systemxe2x80x9d (copyright)MIT 1984, et sec; xe2x80x9cAthena85xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9cComputing in Higher Education: The Athena Experiencexe2x80x9d, E. Balkovich, et al, Communications of the ACM, 28(11) pp. 1214-1224, November, 1985; and xe2x80x9cApollo87xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9cThe Network Computing Architecture and System: An Environment for Developing Distributed Applicationsxe2x80x9d, T. H. Dineen, et al, Usenix Conference Proceedings, June 1987.
Also noted by way of background as to commercial network systems with printers and software therefor is the 1992 Xerox Corporation xe2x80x9cNetwork Publisherxe2x80x9d version of the 1990 xe2x80x9cDocuTech(copyright)xe2x80x9d publishing system, including the xe2x80x9cNetwork Serverxe2x80x9d to customer""s Novell(copyright) 3.11 networks, supporting various different network protocols and xe2x80x9cEthernet(trademark)xe2x80x9d; and the Interpress Electronic Printing Standard, Version 3.0, Xerox System Integration Standard XNSS 048601 (January 1986). Also, the much earlier Xerox Corporation xe2x80x9c9700(trademark)xe2x80x9d electronic printing Systemxe2x80x9d; the xe2x80x9cVP Local Laser Printingxe2x80x9d software application package, which, together with the Xerox xe2x80x9c4045(trademark)xe2x80x9d or other Laser Copier/Printer, the xe2x80x9c6085(trademark)xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9cProfessional Computer Systemxe2x80x9d using Xerox Corporation xe2x80x9cViewPoint(trademark)xe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cGlobalView(trademark)xe2x80x9d software and a xe2x80x9clocal printer [print service] Optionxe2x80x9d kit, comprises the xe2x80x9cDocumenterxe2x80x9d system. The even earlier Xerox Corporation xe2x80x9c8000xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9cXerox Network Services Product Descriptionsxe2x80x9d further describe other earlier Xerox Corporation electronic document printing systems. Eastman Kodak xe2x80x9cLionHeartxe2x80x9d(copyright) digital printing systems, first announced Sep. 13, 1990, are also noted. Current popular commercial xe2x80x9csystems softwarexe2x80x9d, including LAN workstation connections, is available from Novell(copyright), Microsoft(copyright) Windows(copyright) and IBM OS/2(copyright).
Disclosed in the embodiment herein is an improved system for printing electronic documents which call for printing jam-prone sheets. It can be implemented in software, using conventional hardware, to provide a low-cost and simple system, yet enhance overall productivity of the printer, and reduce paper waste.
A specific feature of the specific embodiment disclosed herein is to provide in a method of electronic collated printing of an electronic document of plural electronic pages onto printing sheets to provide collated print jobs, in a printing system capable of printing normal sheets with a normal jam rate, and capable of printing identifiable abnormal printing sheets with a substantially higher jam rate, and wherein associated with said one or more of said electronic document electronic pages is respective printing sheet selection information specifying the printing of said one or more identified pages of said plural page electronic document onto one or more of said abnormal printing sheets having a substantially higher jam rate; the improvement comprising: electronically separating from other said electronic pages of said electronic document, said electronic pages of said plural page electronic document which have said associated sheet selection information specifying printing those pages onto said abnormal printing sheets having a substantially higher jam rate: printing said separated electronic pages specifying printing onto said abnormal printing sheets prior to printing said other electronic pages of said electronic document; temporarily holding said printed abnormal printing sheets; printing said other said electronic pages of said electronic document and providing collated merging of said previously printed abnormal printing sheets therein as said other electronic pages are being printed, to provide collated output of one or more collated printed sets of said entire plural page electronic document at an output location.
Further specific features disclosed in the embodiment herein, individually or in combination, include those wherein said other electronic pages of said electronic document are pages which are electronically designated with sheet selection information specifying their printing on said normal printing sheets having said normal printing jam rate; and/or wherein said temporary holding of said abnormal printing sheets having a substantially higher jam rate is provided by an interposer, and wherein said interposer also provides said collated merging of said abnormal printed sheets with said other printing sheets printed with said other electronic pages of said electronic document; and/or in an electronic printing system with a printing apparatus capable of printing normal printing sheets with a normal jam rate and certain abnormal sheets with a substantially higher jam rate, said printing apparatus having an associated electronic document processing input for receiving and electronically processing plural page electronic documents to be printed by said printing apparatus and controlling their printing, said electronic document processing input being adapted to identify printing sheet selection information associated with said electronic pages of said electronic document for selecting the printing of selected pages of said plural page electronic document onto selected said normal or abnormal printing sheets, and wherein said electronic document processing input for said printer includes a page printing queuing system for controlling the printing order of said electronic pages of said electronic document, the improvement wherein: said electronic document processing input is programmed to electronically separate those said electronic pages of said electronic document which have said sheet selection information specifying printing of said pages onto said abnormal printing sheets having a higher jam rate, so as to be separated from other electronic pages of said electronic document selecting printing said other pages onto said normal printing sheets, said electronic document processing input being further programmed to print said separated electronic pages onto said abnormal printing sheets prior to printing said other electronic pages of said electronic document, and to temporarily delay printing of said other electronic pages of said electronic document; a sheet holding system for temporarily holding said printed abnormal printing sheets, said electronic document input being further programmed to feed said printed abnormal printing sheets into said sheet holding system, and then initiate the printing of said other pages of said electronic document; a sheet collating system for merging said printed abnormal printing sheets in said holding system with said subsequently printed other electronic pages of said electronic document as said other electronic pages of said electronic document are being printed; and an output system for collecting completed collated printed pages of all of the pages of said electronic document; and/or wherein said sheet holding system for temporarily holding said abnormal printing sheets, and said collating system for merging said abnormal printing sheets into said other printed electronic pages of said electronic document as they are being printed, comprises an interposer; and/or wherein said delaying printing of said other electronic pages of said electronic document is provided in said page printing queuing system.
The disclosed system may be operated and controlled by appropriate operation of conventional control systems. It is well known and preferable to program and execute imaging, printing, paper handling, and other control functions and logic with software instructions for conventional or general purpose microprocessors, as taught by numerous prior patents and commercial products. Such programming or software may of course vary depending on the particular functions, software type, and microprocessor or other computer system utilized, but will be available to, or readily programmable without undue experimentation from, functional descriptions, such as those provided herein, and/or prior knowledge of functions which are conventional, together with general knowledge in the software and computer arts. Alternatively, the disclosed control system or method may be implemented partially or fully in hardware, using standard logic circuits or single chip VLSI designs.
It is well known that the control of document and copy sheet handling systems may be accomplished by conventionally actuating them with signals from a microprocessor controller directly or indirectly in response to simple programmed commands. The resultant controller signals may conventionally actuate various conventional electrical solenoid or cam-controlled sheet deflector fingers, motors or clutches, or other components, in programmed steps or sequences. Conventional sheet path sensors or switches connected to the controller may be utilized for sensing, counting, and timing the positions of sheets in the sheet paths of the reproduction apparatus, and thereby also controlling the operation of sheet feeders and gates, etc., as is well known in the art.
In the description herein the term xe2x80x9csheetxe2x80x9d refers to a usually flimsy physical sheet of paper, plastic, or other suitable physical substrate for images, whether precut or initially web fed. A xe2x80x9ccopy sheetxe2x80x9d may be abbreviated as a xe2x80x9ccopyxe2x80x9d, or called a xe2x80x9chardcopyxe2x80x9d. A xe2x80x9cjobxe2x80x9d is normally a set of related sheets, usually a collated copy set copied from a set of original document sheets or electronic document page images, from a particular user, or otherwise related. A xe2x80x9csimplexxe2x80x9d document or copy sheet is one having its image and any page number on only one side or face of the sheet, whereas a xe2x80x9cduplexxe2x80x9d document or copy sheet has xe2x80x9cpagesxe2x80x9d, and normally images, on both sides, i. e., each duplex sheet is considered to have two opposing sides or xe2x80x9cpagesxe2x80x9d even though no physical page number may be present.
As to specific components of the subject apparatus, or alternatives therefor, it will be appreciated that, as is normally the case, some such components are known per se in other apparatus or applications which may be additionally or alternatively used herein, including those from art cited herein. All references cited in this specification, and their references, are incorporated by reference herein where appropriate for appropriate teachings of additional or alternative details, features, and/or technical background. What is well known to those skilled in the art need not be described here.